Sarah Palin Comes Out Guns Blazing

In pre-released snippets of their Monday interview, Sarah Palin tells Oprah Winfrey that she doesn't like drama, but she's stirring up plenty in the media blitz before the release of her memoir "Going Rogue" next week. Alaska's ex-governor is promoting her book and settling some old scores with everyone from John McCain's campaign aides (Palin accuses them of forcing her to pay
for her own vetting) to NBC's Katie Couric, whom she calls ""badgering"
and biased. Pundits are reveling in the melodrama as Palin goes on the war path. Here's who's on the hit list:

The McCain CampaignMatt Drudge posts this leaked excerpt of "Going Rogue" in which Palin goes after McCain aides for allegedly keeping her from the media: "It got so bad
that a couple of times I had a friend in Anchorage track down phone
numbers for me, and then I snuck in calls to folks like Rush Limbaugh,
Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and someone I thought was Larry Kudlow but
turned out to be Neil Cavuto's producer." At Gateway Pundit, Jim Hoft says Palin "sure makes Nicolle Wallace sound like a complete dunce." Meanwhile, The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder
tries to unpack Palin's claim that the McCain campaign made her pay
thousands of dollars for her own vetting. He concludes: "vetting is a
poor word to choose. The McCain campaign footed the bill for Art
Culvahouse's investigation of Palin before she was elected," Ambinder
writes. "Palin was
urged by campaign lawyers to set up a legal defense fund to pay for the
investigations and ethics complaints that had nothing to do with her
presidential bid."

Katie CouricRichard T. Pienciak of The Associated Press reports that Palin attacks Couric at length. "She alleges that Couric and CBS left out her more 'substantive'
remarks and settled for 'gotcha' moments. She writes that Couric had a 'partisan agenda' and a condescending manner. Couric was 'badgering,'
biased and far easier on Couric's Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden."

The Conservative Media? Some right-wing bloggers don't feel attacked, but snubbed. Robert Stacy McCain of The Other McCain
blog wants to know why Palin passed over conservative bloggers and gave her
first book interview to Oprah instead of a right-leaning outlet. "I
attempted to get an advance copy of Palin's book. No dice. Embargoed.
'Under lock and key,'" McCain says he was told. He's miffed. "So the American Spectator doesn't get the scoop. Neither does National Review, nor the Weekly Standard, Human Events, et cetera. (Hey, welcome to the New Media Age: They could have given the scoop to Right Wing News, Red State or Conservatives for Palin.)"

A Laundry List of Enemies ABC's George Stephanopoulos
says Palin seems more interested in using her memoir to get even with
her many nemeses than to set up a presidential run for 2012. Still, he
says, everyone wants to know: "Will Palin Run? Can She Win?"

Those are the two big questions that hang over the most
spectacular book-a-palooza since Colin Powell's 'My American Journey' in
1995. "Going Rogue" (according to AP leak) appears to spend a
little more time settling scores than 'Journey.' Former McCain aides have
already fired back at Palin's contention that she was lulled into the Couric
interview by Nicolle Wallace's assurances that Couric would be sympathetic
because she is a working mom with a 'self-esteem' problem. Didn't happen, says
one: 'Who ever heard of anyone in network news with a self-esteem problem?'

Who's Missing From the Hit List? Levi Johnston, who Gawker's Azaria Jagger says is the "most conspicuous absence" in the memoir. She says her grandson's father is "not mentioned even once in the book, including Palin's retelling of events at which he was present."

News reports are focusing on the Germanwings pilot's possible depression, following a familiar script in the wake of mass killings. But the evidence shows violence is extremely rare among the mentally ill.